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Oyster Soup

A soup made with oysters, crackers, butter, milk, nutmeg, mace, celery, and pepper, served with toasted bread squares.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Oyster Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the oysters in 1 pint of water for 1 hour, then remove them from the liquid.

  2. Grate and finely roll the dozen crackers.

Make the soup

  1. Add the grated crackers and a large lump of butter to the oyster liquid and stir until dissolved.

  2. Mix in 1 quart of milk, grated nutmeg, mace, and chopped celery.

  3. Season with pepper.

  4. Combine everything in a covered pot over low heat and bring to a boil.

  5. Once boiling, add the oysters and boil again until they are cooked through.

Serve

  1. Serve in a tureen with toasted bread squares, omitting the crust.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Provide the main flavor and tender texture of the soup.
Crackers
Thicken the broth as they soak up liquid and dissolve.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the soup.
Milk
Adds creaminess and mellows the briny flavor of the oysters.
Celery
Contributes a fresh, savory aroma and subtle vegetal flavor.

The step that matters

Adding the oysters after boiling. Oysters cook quickly and turn firm and rubbery if boiled too long, so they should be added last and only until cooked through.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, butter, milk, nutmeg, celery, pepper, bread):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, butter, milk, nutmeg, celery, pepper, bread. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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